Bassoon in Literature and Lyrics

The word bassoon appears in literary works quite often as a description. There are novels where a character plays the bassoon or contrabassoon too. Most rare is the use of the word bassoon in song lyrics. If you come across any references to bassoon please email us for inclusion in this listing.

Descriptive Bassoon

The Oath

"Jackman filled his large chest with air. He had Glitsky by an inch or two
and thirty pounds and all of it was never more visible than it was now, when
it was clearly so tightly controlled. His voice, when it came, was a deep
bassoon of authority."

The Oath
John Lescroart
Penguin Group 2002

Bassoon in Fiction

The Offshore Pirate

"He worships me because I'm the only man in the world who can play better ragtime than he can. We used to sit together on the wharfs down on the New Your water-front, he with a bassoon and me with an oboe, and we'd blend minor keys in African harmonics a thousand years old until the rats would crawl up the posts and sit around groaning and squeaking like dogs will in front of phonograph."

From a book of short stories by F. Scott Fitzgerald which also includes the Curious Case of Benjamin Button adapted for a movie in 2008.

Before Gatsby (The First Twenty-Six Stories)
F. Scott Fitzgerald
University of South Carolina Press 2001

Children's Bassoon Books

Ralph's Secret Weapon

This is a great story from a book that is no longer in print. You'll have to look for it in the local library or find a used copy. Ralph takes bassoon lessons from the Maestro and enters a competition which he wins. His grandmothers cake and his fine bassooning help save the from a dreaded sea monster. Bassoonist Chris Weait has created a musical version of the story complete with costumes.

Ralph's Secret Weapon
Steven Kellogg
Puffin Pub. 1986

Bassoon in Prose

The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

Wedding Scene, Gustave Dore Ancient Mariner

One very famous line from literature is in Coleridge's Rime of the Ancient Mariner:

"Hear the wedding guest
Beat his breast
For he heard the loud bassoon."

On the Wanted CD by the Bassoon Brothers we do sing those lines as a lyric in the Wedding Guest written by David Carroll.

Bassoon in Lyrics

The Music Man

The 1957 broadway show The Music Man was based on a story by Meredith Willson and Franklin Lacey with music and lyrics by Meredith Willson. Music Man the movie was released in 1962 where you'll see a bassoon in the marching band. (p.s. It's NOT a good idea to march with a bassoon.) In the lyrics for the song 76 Trombones we hear the following:

"There were copper bottom tympani in horse platoons
Thundering, thundering all along the way.
Double bell euphoniums and big bassoons,
Each bassoon having it's big, fat say!"
The Music Man DVD

Bassoon in Literature

An extensive list of the The Bassoon in Literature appears in the IDRS publication The Double Reed.